Johannesburg Branch
Rolling like thunder over the hills comes the deafening sound of silence from the Branches and Sub-Branches around the country. Once again the only fare available in the SAIMC column were reports on the never-ending stream of events and meetings organised by the Johannesburg Branch. Once again, we had to depend on our friends from Secunda to add spice to the SAIMC page with their proud statement: 'Watch out, here comes the Secunda Branch'. Man, those guys are committed!
At our monthly meeting in June, Chris Yelland and his team from EE Publishers hosted a prestige cheese and wine evening and we enjoyed the company of a number of SAIEE members, guests from the publishing industry and of course our members and guests. Chris presented a paper on the activities surrounding printing and publishing and tested everyone's resolve by stretching his talk past 90 minutes! We, however, decided to forgive him this time round as we had a record head count of 102 for the evening. Well done Chris and EE Publishers!
The annual Business Breakfast went off without a hitch and our guest speaker, Steff Du Plessis, emphasised once again the depth of talent we have in this country with people like him who has travelled Africa and the world with his family and his camera and we thank him once again for sharing his life's philosophy and viewpoints with us. It was a very refreshing and moving experience and we look forward to push our attendance figures up even further with next year's breakfast.
The Johannesburg Committee would like to make a special mention of Dave Howcroft and Graeme Bell, the only two members from our National Council who came out in support of our Breakfast. (Cornu Perold made his apologies beforehand). Thank you Dave and Graeme!
I recently overheard one of the esteemed members of the Secunda Branch mention that the Johannesburg Business Breakfast should be taken off the points allocation sheet for Branch of the Year (as it is impossible for them to host such an event in Secunda). I say, take it off if you will guys, Jo'burg will still win this year. And if Secunda cannot beat us, none of these other little 'social' clubs around the country will even have a sniff. Watch JHB take it this year with at least a 100-point margin.
In order to simplify the task for the rest of the branches around the country we at Johannesburg have decided to do their news for them this month. Please consider this as a favour, guys, and do not worry about thanking us, we know how busy you are.
Rest of the country Branch news
In general, not a lot happened this month. In fact, it is rumoured that somewhere in the Far East Rand, during July, an actual meeting took place. These claims are in the process of being verified. In the Mossel Bay region some smoke signals were detected earlier on but it turned out to be nothing but flare gas.
In the Vaal Triangle, the Scorpions are in the act of flushing out some proof of a branch there, while in Rustenburg and Cape Town some real commitment was reported.
The guys in Welkom are adversely affected by the inactivity of mineshafts, but nonetheless some light can be seen at the end of the stopes.
Phalaborwa is still lost in the wilderness, Zululand is Zululand and Durban, well, is Durban.
Johan Steyn, Chairman
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